Jaspan fired as Fairfax shed 550 jobs

Former Observer and Scotsman editor Andrew Jaspan, who has been editing the Melbourne Age for the past four years, has been fired. In announcing his dismissal, the Age's owners, Fairfax, said "fresh editorial and executive leadership" was required for the "next critical stage" of the paper's development.

The news came in the wake of Fairfax's decision to shed 550 jobs across the company's papers in Australia and New Zealand, including the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Chief executive David Kirk said that Fairfax hoped to save $50m (£23.28m) by cutting 5% of its full-time workforce. After receiving the news, staff in Sydney passed a motion saying they had "lost confidence in the Fairfax board and its ability to manage the company through these challenging financial times when its only strategy is to cut editorial staff again and again".

The motion said: "We believe Fairfax is abandoning the quality journalism market, leaving a hollow ring to David Kirk's commitment to uphold these values."

The "restructuring" is likely to mean the loss of 60 journalists from the Herald and 50 at the Age. Production of some of the papers' sections will be outsourced.

"Media companies fit for the modern media world need to be lean and agile," Mr Kirk said. The move comes as Fairfax has suffered large falls in classified advertising, once referred to as its "rivers of gold".

Jaspan's exit as editor-in-chief was announced by Fairfax executive Don Churchill who called him "a highly successful editor" who "has delivered great papers and has done a magnificent job in reinvigorating the Age." He added that under Jaspan's editorship the paper had "benefited from an innovative redesign and consistent, strong growth in circulation and readership, and agenda-setting journalism."

The statement concluded: "The company is discussing with Andrew the ways his skills and expertise can be made available within the company."

Fairfax's shock announcements of job cuts and Jaspan's firing came in the week that the Herald's rival, the Daily Telegraph, underwent a relaunch with a massive advertising campaign. The newspaper is owned by Rupert Murdoch's company, News Limited.